Many natural language conversational computer systems have included a main natural language processor. A main natural language processor is a computer component that operates to automatically interact using a natural language dialog, which can include receiving natural language queries, processing those queries, and responding with natural language dialog scripts. The processing of the queries can include identifying an intent of a received natural language query, as well as possibly one or more entities for the natural language query. As used herein, an “intent” is computer-readable data that represents what a computer system component has identified as a meaning that was intended by a natural language query. An “entity” in this context is computer-readable data that represents one or more details identified by the computer system for an identified intent. A natural language is a language used in natural conversation between human beings, such as Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Japanese, German, French, etc. Natural language can also include language modifications that are used in natural conversation between human beings in various different contexts, such as digital messaging conversations, in-person conversations, etc. For example, such modifications may include mixtures of formal languages, abbreviations, and/or slang.
In some configurations, a main natural language processor may invoke a conversation query processor, which is a computer component that can handle at least a portion of a response to a natural language query when instructed to do so by a main natural language processor. This is often done by having a main natural language processor use a grammar that has one or more slots to be filled with keywords. For example, a natural language query may say “ask App X to call a cab.” Such a statement may match a grammar that says, “ask —————— to ——————”, with the underlined portions representing slots. The main natural language processor can recognize that the natural language query fits the form of the grammar, so that the natural language query is recognized as having the intent of invoking the application called “App X” to do something, in this case “call a cab.” Thus, the main natural language processor can invoke the App X conversation query processor and pass to it an intent and possibly one or more entities, which instruct App X to initiate an operation for calling a cab.